Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-12-23
THE INDIAN PApOOSE.


How He gires and JJhat He THINKS of the
Indian Question.
The vexed Indian question was never
more brightly and pointedly stated and
discussed than in the following sketch
abbreviated from Hdrpey's Young
People:
1 am a Jolly little Indian papoose. /
keep pretty close to my mother. She
does not often like to face RESPONSE
bility Of my size. but she will shoulder
it any time, and so We are bound to-
gether by the strongest ties.
When l am at homo 7 live in wig
wan which mother and I built. We
made it of poles covered with bark and
skins. We built it together. Mother
did the work, and I backed her up
heavily. and between us both we pulled
TIN orgh without interrupting father,
who was busy sitting around basking in
the sun and smoking. He works at
baskipg and smoking and eating nearly
oil the time when he is not sleeping,
unless there should he war or q hunt;
then he goes of with gun.
Mother and 1 do all the rest of tho
work; we plant and hoe and harvest the
crops; we grind the corn between
stones, or pound it in mortar; then
we make it into cakes, and roast them
in fire for father to eat. Mother does
it, but keep right around after her;
and see to it all.
Sometimes we have nothing to eat
roots, berries, acorns, everything gives
out. Then we start for the agency to
get rations. 1t is long tramp, but
don't mind it, for mother does the
walking. We form procession of two
a double header. Mother heals the
front and I head the rear. AS the col
nmn moves forward / go ahead back
ward like a born leader OF the hind
most, and J. pass everything on the
road that is not going my way. OF
course i can't see what am coming to
till it is past. That is what comes of
going ahead backward.
My people are pretty much like me.
The old Mother Government straps
them upon board and shoulders them
around from one place to another. If
she hears them moan with hunger, she
feeds them; if she secs them SILVER
with cold, she blankets them; when
they shrek and kick with rage, she
beats them. She lets them live on the
hind side OF somewhere till somebody
else wants it, and then she bundles
them off to the other side Of nowhere
which nobody wants.
White peorle who stay at home and
make books say my people are dying
out; but white men who look around
and count say my people are living on,
as many as ever. Oh! it is chaps like
me that keep the Indian question go
ing. There are thousands upon thou
sands like me, but we are always on
the hind side and looking backward.
They say there are White babies who
are carried upon their mothers hearts
and next to their cheeks; these babies
always look forward, and everything
starts small and grows large and comes
toward them, and they can catch it if
they want it. These babies have their
eyes and ears trained to find out what
is coming, their foreheads bulge out to
meet future events, and their noses are
sharpened upon them as they wlliz by.
So these babies grow to be strong men.
Oh, old Mother Government, take up
MY poor people and bear them upon
thy heart! feed them with the milk of
human kindness: give them justice and
teach them, by example the law of
love.